Over the last two decades, manuscript studies have known a renewed and sustained interest. This includes a deep methodological rethinking that has fully incorporated both the comparative approach as well as a programmatic effort in integrating the contributions from the humanities, natural sciences and information sciences.
Prof Michael Friedrich, founder of the Center for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) of the University of Hamburg, is a visiting fellow of the MemoryLab of the department of History and Culture (DISCI) of the University of Bologna in November 2024. His visit will offer the chance to take stock of some of the current research on manuscript studies at DISCI as well as across the University of Bologna.
Participants will discuss their past, present and future research interest and activities. Some of the key ideas that will be discussed are:
- Manuscripts as tools/agents of memory
- Paratexts / Paracontents
- Layout
- Composite manuscripts, Multiple-text manuscripts, Miscellanies
- Interaction between manuscripts and other media (orality, printing, etc.)
- The formation of manuscript collections
- The role of manuscript studies in the shaping of philological, historiogrpahical and ethnographic methods
Programme
09.45–10.00 > Welcome and Introduction
10.00–10.30 > Michael Friedrich - TBA
10.30–11.00 > Coffee break
11.00–12.00 > Emma Abate & Saverio Campanini - The Formation of Hebrew Books Collections: Case Studies
12.00–13.00 > Giovanni Ciotti & Marco Franceschini - From Colophons to Material Analysis: A Comprehensive Approach to the Study of Palm- Leaf Manuscripts from Tamil Nadu
13.00–14.00 > Lunch break
14.00–15.30 > Lucia Raggetti - TBA, Sara Fani - TBA, Celeste Gianni - Retracing Family Histories from the Ownership and Marginal Notes in the Arabic Manuscripts of the Great ʿUmari Mosque in Gaza
15.30–16.00 > Coffee break
16.00–17.30 > Giulio Iovine - Papyrology: Writing books and Documents in the Graeco-Roman Era, Giacomo Vignodelli - TBA, Anna Sirinian - The Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts as “Places of Memory”